Various disclosures exist in the literature dealing with polymeric compositions containing moieties derived from linear polymer units and moieties derived from cyclic ones.
The formation of "polyrotaxanes" which are derived from the physical threading of linear molecules through macrocyclic structures has been proposed in such publications as H. W. Gibson et al., Polym. Prepr., 29(1), 248-249 (1988), P. R. Lecavalier et al., Polym. Prepr., 30(1), 189-190 (1989), and H. W. Gibson et al., Polym. Prepr., 31(1), 79-80 (1990).
The placement of a monofunctional macrocycle containing an 18 atom-sized ring (an 18-crown-6) in a polymer has been disclosed as another way of forming polymeric compositions containing structures of linear polymeric moieties and macrocyclic structures. See V. Percec et al., Polym Prepr., 30(2), 444-445 (1989).
G. W. Gokel et al., in Macrocyclic Polyether Syntheses (1982), Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, in Tables 3.29 (pp. 149-150) and 6.4 (pp. 304-308) gives examples of a variety of polymeric crowns and crown-containing polymers and polycrowns.
Blasius et al., in Fresenius' Z. Anal. Chem. 1977, 284(5), 337-360 discuss the preparation, characterization and application of complex forming exchangers with crown compounds or cryptands as anchor groups., Various dibenzo crown-containing polymers are illustrated (e.g., structures I, III and VI-VIII on page 338.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,136 teaches the manufacture of various nitrogen-linked cyclic polyether ion binding polymeric liquid purification materials including those with a dibenzo
crown structure (see Col. 5, lines 31-33 and Col. 7, lines 10-12). The nitrogen linkage for such materials is depicted as being on the benzo groups of the dibenzo crown and yields a nitrogen-containing backbone polymer (e.g., a polyamic acid polymer, and polyimide polymer, or a polyamide-imide polymer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,251, which at Col. 1, lines 40-48 refers to the previously discussed nitrogen linkage on the dibenzo rings (i.e., a reduced nitro functionality) describes polyurethane-containing polymers including a macrocyclic crown ether in the polymer backbone. The reactive moieties on the dibenzo rings for the crown ethers shown in this patent are --CH.sub.2 OH which are derived by the reduction of an aldehyde group --CHO.